A form roll tooling assembly selectively cuts and/or slits a sheet of material in order to allow the material to be used in the manufacture of a heat exchanger, such as but not limited to a radiator, heat core, evaporator, and/or condenser. Particularly, the formed cuts or slits promote and direct the flow of air through the formed exchanger. While current roll tooling assemblies do allow for the formation of cuts and/or slits within a sheet of material, they suffer from some drawbacks.
That is, such a roll tooling assembly typically utilizes steel blades which cooperatively and meltingly form the desired cuts and/or slits within the received material. Such blades become dull within a relatively short period of time, thereby requiring frequent maintenance and/or replacement and undesirably and frequently disrupting the overall forming process. Hence, costs are incurred in maintaining the tooling assembly and in the frequent “maintenance downtime” associated with this type of tooling assembly. Moreover, these steel blades tend to “flex” or move over time, thereby increasing the likelihood of the entry of dust and/or other ambient type particulates (e.g., such as that which is created during the roll forming process) between the blades. The entry of such foreign matter causes the blades to expand and/or move in separation (i.e., dust or other particulates resultant from the forming process becomes “built-up” over time, thereby forcing the blades to move away from or separate from the other blades) and impairs their operative mating arrangement, thereby further causing increased wear and the creation of items which have undesirably positioned slits or openings.
To overcome the foregoing disadvantages, use has been made of blades which are formed from a carbide material. Particularly, a carbide blade is more rigid than a steel blade. Hence, the carbide blades have a higher “flex resistance”. Moreover, a carbide blade is less resistant to wear than a steel blade and has been shown to operate from about twenty to about one-hundred times as long as a steel blade, before it must be replaced or sharpened.
While a carbide blade has many superior benefits to a steel blade, it also has many serious drawbacks. By way of example and without limitation, a carbide blade easily shatters or becomes damaged due to its brittleness. Hence, vibration or other forces, such as and without limitation, material “jam-ups” (e.g., a material “jam-up” hereinafter refers to the material which the blades are forming being caught around or wedged around the blades, thereby forcing the blades to form two layers of material rather than one layer of material), acting upon the blade in a manufacturing environment, oftentimes cause the blade to be destroyed or damaged. Further, the relatively high cost of a carbide blade has made this alternative unpalatable.
There is therefore a need for a new and improved roll forming tooling assembly which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated disadvantages of prior roll forming tooling assemblies.